Taihape

This weekend we visited Hannah and Marcus on their farm near Taihape. We had never met them before, but Hannah is the daughter of a school friend of Andy's, Des McHugh. Andy has known Des for nearly 50 years and I have known him nearly as long, so it was lovely to meet his daughter and her family, who made us very welcome. We had lunch, and this was followed by a trip around the farm on a quad bike, a first for me! The picture below is a bit of a cheat as I didn't drive it. Marcus drove with Hannah behind, and Andy and I clinging onto the sides for dear life! You can see the beautiful river and beach which forms part of their land.

The views from the farm are beautiful. We travelled up and down steep slopes, through fields of cattle and sheep. We learned what a hogget is (any guesses?). A hogget is a year old sheep. They go on to become a two-tooth at a two years old, a four-tooth at 3 years, a six-tooth at 4 years and a full-mouth after that. So you determine the age of a sheep by how many teeth it has, if you are brave enough to check of course!

Finally, Marcus treated us to a display of the skills of his sheepdogs, which were all trained by him. Each dog has its own whistle, with different sounds for left, right, lie down etc., so Marcus can use several dogs at the same time all doing different things. Absolutely amazing! We had a really lovely day. Thank you both.